Yup, it’s that time of year when seemingly everyone around us has some sort of flu bug, virus, or cold. It’s the season of sickness and despair. We see multiple reports from healthcare organizations telling us (again) that this year will be the worst flu strain on record. We must go out and get flu shots! Don’t go to work! Stay home! Don’t venture out in public if sick! Sneeze and cough into your arm! Don’t touch your eyes, mouth, or nose! Don’t shake hands! Use hand sanitizer! Wash your hands! Don’t have sex!
(Well, that last one I am drawing the line. Unless I’m sick, or she is, and vomiting. Gotta have limits.)
Seems like overkill. Yet, the funny thing is, I agree with a lot of this. I just wish the selfish disease and plague-ridden public would also adhere to these warnings and stay home!
Hey, I know that in this day and age with the economy being what it is and all, that many people need to work and can’t afford to take days off. I get that. It’s those idiots that continually get sick and still go into work anyway even though they have sick days coming to them and can afford to be out for a few days. The flu is contagious people!
I see them all on the subway in the morning. Watery eyes. Coughing up phlegm bombs. 
Sneezing out snot everywhere. The subway cars are like a rolling petri dish of bubonic plague! If you are trapped in one of these cars and can’t escape you are doomed! It really can ruin your whole day just thinking about the a-hole who kept coughing and sneezing behind you on the subway ride this morning that took forever. Honestly, as soon as I get on the train and I detect anyone with the slightest look of a cold I jump off. I will literally dive out onto the platform to avoid being surrounded by these people. They infect everyone, and even though they know it, just don’t care. Stay home or take a cab to wherever you are going! Wear a mask if you have to! Stop coughing near me!
Then you get to work and there are those coworkers who keep insisting it’s
just a head cold. They have been sick for days, or even over a week, and keep coughing up loogies, and sneezing all over everything. They insist they don’t have a fever yet are sweating bullets, vomiting, and maybe also experiencing explosive diarrhea! Will they go see a doctor? Hell no. Great, now I have to work in fear and hide in my office with the door closed all day.
Don’t even get me started on those who are sick and still insist on hitting the gym, going out to eat, seeing a movie, or being out shopping. It just seems like these germ incubators can’t stay home for one day!
On top of this then you have those that insist on keeping a social life going when sick. They just can’t give up going out for a few days or a week for fear that they might miss out on happy hour, the game, or a good time at the bar/club. I’ve seen sick Joe Meathead on a few occasions end up puking his brains out because he would rather pound down beers and shots rather then stay home and take their meds to get better. Morons!
I’ll just keep avoiding all sick people as much as possible. Take my vitamins. Pound down
vitamin C. Exercise. It’s a long winter flu and cold season but we just need to get through a few more months until spring.
In the meantime, we all can’t live in a plastic bubble, right?
Can you send this to my boss please? She doesn’t get it.
Hi Kristy!
Wow – that was a fast read! I just posted. Glad you appreciated this rant! It seems many bosses are idiots that don’t get it. Mine is cool and we can work from home if needed.
Hahaha I can imagine a day in New York where everyone’s rolling around in those plastic bubbles though I’m not entirely sure how they’d cope when the wind picks up?… Flu-ridden New Yorkers blowing away like tumbleweed
Hey Weird Guy!
I would love to roll in those bubbles! That would be funny though! Human pinball!
Thanks for reading and the comment!
As someone who got a stomach virus out of nowhere (AKA work), i agree if you are sick you should stay home. Norovirus is extremely contagious- if you are shitting and puking to that extent, stay the fuck home. Wasted a sick day today because i give a fuck about my coworkers and refuse to spread the virus. BR is a dif story- he can have the virus. lol
Hi Mo!
So sorry your are sick. Hope BR doesn’t get it from you now!
Sometimes you just need to eat a sick day or two and stay home to get better. So many people, and bosses too, just don’t get that. They would rather come in an infect everyone. I literally ran out of a subway car today when I heard someone sneeze! 🙂
How fast did you run?
Like a bolt of lightning type fast!
The subway is the worst!!! Oh.My.Gawd. Just so gnarly. It’s like being in a moving coffin. You just can’t escape. And the gym…don’t get me started. Okay, I’m started. There are just these people who REFUSE to wipe their damn machine or cover their mouth when they cough. It really grinds my gears, you know?
LOL! Like a moving coffin!Now I will be thinking that tomorrow morning.
The gym is full of germs and sick people who refuse to skip a few workouts. I run away when I see them!
Thanks for reading Holly.
Germ incubators…LOL! They are rude and sickenening. Pun intended. I try to avoid people this time of the year, too. One sneeze can infect hundreds of people. All those horrible airborne germs spraying indiscrimnately across a room. Too bad you can’t see them coming. I take Vitamin C everyday, too. Hopefully, it will protect me for the evil germ incubators.
Hi Lauren!
Bottom line is that many of these germ incubators are morons. I think some want to get others sick so they can share the suffering. LOL! 🙂
Vitamin C, hand washing, disinfecting, flame thrower, I’m using it all! 🙂
LOL! Flame thrower. Now that’s an idea that warms my heart.
Hey, it would surely disinfect any germs! 🙂
Well, this is what is called the ‘Woman Flu’ says urban dictionary!
Woman flu is a dreadful disease which causes seriously ill women to pretend to be well and relentlessly come to work. The opposite of man flu
Man 1: Gosh, her nose is streaming dreadfully… why doesn’t she take a day off?
Man 2: Must be a case of woman flu
Hi Nina!
I hear that! It’s also something I see a lot of guys do too. I know some people have jobs where they can’t take days off, but too many that can insist on getting the rest of us sick! Thanks for reading!
Ha! I worked with a man who had over 6 months of sick time. He had a nerve to come to work and sit across from me sick, not sniffle-sniffle but yellow mucus, puking sick. I told him to go home and he said, “I had outpatient surgery on my back, I was back at my desk before the day ended. A little cough and sneeze is not going to send me packing.” It wasn’t ok to go home, but it was ok for me to have his nasty germs and bring them into my home. Dumb ass. Sick = Stay home. Flu= Stay away from me!
Great post!
Hi Carica!
I would have killed him! People like that are just selfish bastards and don’t care if they get anyone else sick. What was he saving is sick time for – when he calls in dead?
Glad you liked my post! 🙂
Phil, at times, I have compared you to a grumpy old man, or, more specifically, my dad. But this time you are RIGHT ON! Seriously.
I mean, I get it. I get stressed out when I miss work. But there comes a point where you are sick and you need to stay home.
That said, I started feeling a tickle in my throat this afternoon but I am currently on my laptop at Argo Tea.
Hey Jill!
You can call me Daddy any time! 😉
Sometimes when really sick it’s best to lock yourself in your place. No one wants to be infected!
Not only that, but even if the people that got sick stay home, there’s still germs all over the place and on everything to deal with. Now whenever I touch anything I use a cloth (clean one) instead of my bare hands, to open up doors, refrigerators, microwaves,etc. We can get sick even if the sick ones stayed home. Germs are everywhere and on everything. To prevent that, I try to wash my hands anytime I touch anything when I am out. Don’t know who has touched what.
Hi Susana,
Sure, there are always germs everywhere, and I believe that we need to be exposed to them to build up some tolerance to fight them off. Yet, when I see those who are visibly really sick at work it makes me flip out. Why expose everyone else to your sickness?
I’ve got to agree with everything you say Phil. A number of people are in a position where they can work from home if they have to and spare us all.
If I feel a head cold coming on I take a day out and spend it in bed. Most times I can clear up the cold in a day or at worst two. I’m then more effective at work and less contagious to others.
Hi Guy!
Glad you have the same point of view. It seems most of us do. I know many people can’t take off work, and I get that, but for those that can and still come in when sick are doing no good for anyone. Virus spreaders!
I am super paranoid about germs! I use bleach when I clean my house and I am not a fan of hand shakes etc. I carry hand sanitizer with me everywhere. Last year I got pneumonia thanks to getting the flu from a kid at my son’s bus stop. Kids spread germs like crazy since their parents wont keep them home!!!
Hi Frugal!
Ouch! Sorry about the pneumonia. I had it years ago. Took my lungs a long time to heal. Yeah, kids are also germ factories!
Great post, Phil. As a Jersey guy who used to commute into the city for years, let’s just say your thoughts on airborne pathogens erased the last of my “fondest” memories of being packed fin to gill with an international collection of PATH train riders with exotic coughs on their way to or from the office. What do I owe you?
Hi John!
Thanks so much for dropping by my blog, reading, and commenting. Glad you liked my post!
LOL – also glad I could be of service erasing those thoughts of terror! 🙂
Absolutely love it, Phil! As a total germ-a-phobic I really feel your pain. Keep your fingers crossed and a packet of anti-bac wipes in your bag.
Kate x
Hi Kate!
Thanks for the love! I came to work in my plastic bubble today! Was a bitch getting it into the subway though. 🙂
Don’t you hate it when someone comes in sick for a whole week, and they refuse to take a day off? Then when you get a tiny bit sick just for a day, that same person complains and complains about you getting him or her sick? But it was okay for them to go in sick all week long as if they have a rights to be there sick and to risk getting everyone else sick, when that same person asks you to go home when you are not even half way sick in just one day?
Hey Susana,
You said a mouthful. Some people are just idiots when it comes to being sick and being considerate.
I cracked up. Of COURSE you drew the line at “no sex”. Doesn’t everyone? And I don’t think the whole germaphobe freak out thing during flu season is exclusive to NY. My hubby practically loses it any time we get on a plane and he hears someone sneeze or cough…and has to listen twice to make sure a throat clearing isn’t in fact a disguised cough. All he had to hear was “recycled air” to know that everyone stands a better chance of getting everyone else’s germs if they are on a plane together. 🙂
Hi Kitt!
We all must draw the line at no-sex!
Oh, I am with your husband on that! If I see someone sick on a plane I freak out too. On a plane we all are breathing germ infested air. Yuck!